Road rage

It is with a sense of deja vu that I read the 'Natural lighting' article in the NCE Roads Supplement (24 June) reporting the proposed installation of self-illuminating road studs on the A449 in Worcestershire, as these have been in place already for at least six months on the A449 between Worcester and Kidderminster.

They were installed along with ill-conceived traffic calming measures which turned a pleasant 12 minute journey on 70mph dual-carriageway

into a congested 25 minute crawl along segregated single-carriageway with red-painted hard shoulders and the occasional too-short overtaking lane, all patrolled by conspicuous 50mph speed cameras.

The twinkling road studs just add to the confusion. Not only do they flash commendably as you approach, but they continue flashing as you pass alongside - very off-putting from the corner of your eye. I imagine this is how pilots felt on the TV series Battlestar Gallactica as they and their spaceships were propelled along strobing launch tubes before being thrust into space. Most unnerving!

Consolation came recently when I drove along the road in a slow-moving queue of traffic with a member of the highway planning committee responsible for the traffic calming. He was due at a very important meeting in Kidderminster. We were ten minutes late. I didn't let the irony of the situation pass him by.

Political and business leaders group England’s Economic Heartland (EEH) has called on the government to establish a ministerial task force to take charge of delivering infrastructure projects in the region spanning Swindon and Cambridge.

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